Breaking

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

MoALD does not have any new plan for next fiscal

At a time when all the ministries are busy preparing a list of new projects to be included in the budget for next fiscal, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) does not have any major new plan for the agricultural sector.

According to Tej Bahadur Subedi, spokesperson for the ministry, most of the programmes initiated in this fiscal are yet to be completed. Hence, the ministry will focus on giving continuity to the said programmes in the next fiscal as well.

This year, the ministry is preparing to seek the budget for implementation of a project to increase production of potatoes and onions to replace their imports.

Meanwhile, programmes to make livestock industry self-sufficient will be included in the budget as a new project.

Similarly, the ministry will ask for budget to build milk powder production plants. By setting up the plant, the government is trying to reduce the import of powdered milk.

The ministry will also propose programmes to enhance the skills and leadership roles of the youth, Subedi informed.

“These programmes, though announced earlier, had been in planning phase till now. So, we are going to ask for the budget for their implementation,” he said.

It has to be noted that Agricultural Secretary Yubak Dhoj GC had earlier said that the government is yet to prioritise agricultural sector in the budget. “Most of the projects are suffering due to insufficient budget allocation to the sector,” he had said.

However, a recent report compiled by the ministry itself has revealed that even the projects implemented through foreign aid had failed to achieve the set target on time.